The explosion in business experienced by many of the leading commercial property agents in the last two years appears to have come at a price. Even the largest and longest established agencies have been losing experienced senior staff sometimes to smaller, rival firms. It’s become clear that these smaller operators are ramping up their expansion plans in the hope of attracting some of the multimillion euro property sales being handed out by Nama, the banks and a small coterie of receivers and liquidators.

All of the agencies realise that in order to impress the Bad Bank and the other big commercial property sellers they need to demonstrate that they have skilled and experienced personnel. That means agents with a good track record and the cop on to know when to keep their mouths shut. Unusually, many of these personnel are switching despite the fact that internationally branded agencies are well positioned to be shortlisted for big ticket sales.

Experienced agents in the commercial investment sector have been the most sought after by the various companies in expansion mode, and with a few billion in euro in commercial property sales on the cards for this year alone, further poaching seems inevitable. To add to this depletion of experienced staff, the problem for some of the big operators is being further compounded by the continuous recruitment of skilled commercial agents by Nama itself, the various banks and even property companies hoping to work their way out of the present quagmire.